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[joymattingly]

There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there's no reason why you shouldn't have a fairly good time. 
-- Edith Wharton

I really thought this quote was really interesting and funny.  It is food for thought on

Comments

we are a lucky generation

[danimal234]

In that we even get to contemplate running after happiness. After all, until about 100 years ago, most people were just running after food (and outside of the Western world, that's still true).

However, personally, I don't think we can get by without attempting to find happiness. Not the mass market, corporate driven idea of happiness, which we'll never find (because that Suburban won't lead to the pretty girl, and if you ever were happy based on what you bought, you'd stop buying).

Rather, I think we all have the luxury that the upper class of the Greeks had 2500 years ago to ask 'what is the purpose of my life' and answer that, each in our own way. It's a luxury and a duty and a burden, all rolled up into one.

[joymattingly]

I have more of a Zen approach about happiness. . . . because we (folks in the Western World at least) so rarely know ourselves well enough to know how to go about pursuing that happiness. And because I have this kinda thought on happiness, it seems silly to chase it. Because you can't chase after something that you know nothing about. It's my thought on happiness that I should just be patient, thoughtful, present, and the universe will show me, perhaps not what I expected happiness to look like (based on the data ingrained in my brain on the basis of being a white, large breasted, blonde American chick), but definitely, the universe will show me my purpose. And truly, isn't purpose the very meaning of happiness? Cause I have not known happiness as the kind I have now and a lot of that I contribute to my son, who almost consistently provides me with a deep feeling of purpose. And that's the luxury/burden we have over our non-western counterparts, their purpose is determined for them in the never-ending search for food, security,